It is known to provide gloves that have an outer surface configured and/or comprised of a material to provide for a better grip. As an example, in sports, golf gloves are typically made of leather. The outer leather surface provides a better grip on a golf club than bare hands. In football, receivers and runners may use gloves that have a soft and tacky polyurethane outer surface to assist in catching or carrying the football.
In football, as an example, balls are preferably caught with the fingertips. Modern glove designs often have an outer, soft and/or tacky surface (such as urethane), but the inner surface of the glove has not been sufficiently improved. When a ball hits a glove at a high speed, or a defender tries to dislodge the ball from a player's grip, the lack of friction between the skin of the fingers/hand and the inside glove material can cause the glove to slip or slide, especially if sweat is present. This is sometimes called “finger roll,” and makes the glove less effective. A glove should preferably remain connected to the hand on the inside, and to the ball (or a tool or other item being gripped) on the outside.
Problems with known gloves are (1) they can slip on the hand because the inner surface does not sufficiently grip the skin, (2) to solve the problem of slipping on the hand, the gloves are sometimes made very tight, which can make them difficult to put on and take off, and limit hand/finger movement when the glove is on, and/or (3) the gloves limit tactile sensation, sometimes because of the thickness or type of material used to construct the glove.
Further, providing a roughened surface on the outside of gloves is known. However, there has been no disclosure of specific materials, and specific locations of the material on the outer portion of a glove, that would optimize the use of such a material.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,902,735, U.S. Application Publication No. 20150106997 A1, U.S. Pat. No. 9,032,553, U.S. Pat. No. 8,225,427, U.S. Publication Ser. No. 20080229477, U.S. Application Publication No. US20120297517 A1, U.S. Application Publication No. 20130239291 A1, U.S. Pat. No. 8,448,256, U.S. Application Publication Ser. No. 20150040288 A1, U.S. Application Publication Ser. No. 20100077526 A1, and U.S. Application Publication Ser. No 20150106997 A1 show various glove designs.